Helen Mirren shared acting tips over four days of filming.
Photograph: MasterClass

Helen Mirren, the Oscar-winning actor, has criticised drama schools for “stifling” the natural instincts of young actors.

The star, who appears in a series of online acting masterclasses, told the Observer: “I’m very ambivalent about drama teachers and the classes that people go to. I think people’s instincts are crushed by bad drama teaching. I’ve watched it happen.”

While acknowledging that people “can be really opened” by drama training, she said that others suffer because “individuality is stifled”.

“It’s so often that the people who are actually the best are the ones who are thrown out of drama school because they’re idiosyncratic. They’re peculiar. They don’t fit any nicely tied-up box. In fact, they are the most interesting artists,” she said. “I’ve known people who were thrown out of drama school for not conforming to what the school felt was going to be a viable option in the profession.”

Partly because of her reservations about training, she has always turned down requests to teach or publicly discuss her acting. She finally agreed to a series of online masterclasses because they were to be directed by her husband, Taylor Hackford: “He’s lived with me for 30 years. He’s watched me prepare roles … He’s a director, so he understands the nature of the beast. So at least he can guide me by asking the right questions.”

Mirren is the latest figure to take part in MasterClass, which offers online classes “taught by the world’s best”, including Oscar-winning film-makers such as Martin Scorseseand .Ron Howard. Over four days, unscripted, Mirren talked to camera, sharing the tips of her trade with an audience.Before filming the classes, she bought books on acting: “I thought I’ve got to at least know something about the theory of acting. But the weird thing was I sat down and it just poured out of me. It was really strange. I had no idea that I knew any of this stuff.” Ultimately, she jokes, the best advice she can give is “to be on time and don’t be an asshole”.